Aussie Agrifood Tech Founders heading to Israel, the Startup Nation

Aussie Agrifood Tech Founders heading to Israel, the Startup Nation

Six agri and food tech founders from Australia have been selected to undertake a purpose built intensive program in Israel to further their growth and global visibility. Supported by Bridge Hub and Austrade, the Agri and Food Tech Founders Israel Bootcamp includes participants from across Australia with a variety of new and innovative startups.

“Israel has an innovation ecosystem that I’ve looked up to for a long time, especially in Agtech, so I’m excited about the incredible opportunity to go over and experience it first hand.” Participant Sam Duncan from FarmLab said.

The bootcamp is an important step in delivering one of Bridge Hub’s core missions of creating more capacity in the Australian agrifood tech sector for emerging startups.

Grant Fuzi, Co-Founder of Bridge Hub said: “The current landscape in the agriculture and food sectors in Australia is yearning for new and more efficient ways to produce food and fibre right across the supply chain. New technologies are assisting in the ability to do more with less, making tangible bottom line impacts for producers and supply chain participants.”

"Giving Australian startups access to global markets is critical as they embark on their journey to build a global business.” Fuzi said.

Along with assisting Australian startups, Bridge Hub is working with several Israeli startups to test, trial and prove their concepts in Australia. Their work in creating Australia as the global test bed for agri and food technologies is leveraging Australia’s unique value proposition in the global ecosystem.

Ethy Levy, Bridge Hub Co-Founder mentioned: “Australia has several advantages that makes it an ideal location to trial agrifood technologies. It has opposite seasons to most of the world which allows for additional testing and shorter R&D cycles. It has every climatic zone, a broad variety of crops, very good branding and high standards of biosecurity. Australia is an ideal launch pad into Asian markets, and has globally leading research. Building Australia as the global test bed for agrifood technologies provides Australian producers and supply chain participants access to the latest global technologies. It is also a fantastic opportunity for offshore startups to benefit from doing product development in Australia”.

Israel is known as the Startup Nation. It is the second largest innovation hub outside of Silicon Valley and hosts over 400 Multinational R&D centres, deep tech expertise and established global go-to-market experience. Israel is a global leader in agrifood tech with over 750 startups in that space spanning from cutting edge drones, sensors, robotics and machine learning, alternative proteins, gene editing and AI technologies.

The cohort will fly out at the end of April and will touch down in Tel Aviv for a program being run on the ground by the Austrade Tel Aviv Landing Pad Manager Omri Wislizki who has facilitated a number of other missions to Israel.

“We are excited to collaborate with Bridge Hub on the agrifood tech mission to Israel with startups from all across Australia. Australia and Israel have so much potential to work together in the Agrifood tech field to support the worlds needs and we are humbled to be a small part of this journey in helping the Australian entrepreneurs maximize their global potential.” Omri shared.

For more information regarding the bootcamp participants or Bridge Hub go to www.thebridgehub.co

About the Bridge Hub Austrade Australian Agri and Food Tech Founders Israel Bootcamp

The Australian Agri and food tech founders bootcamp to Israel is a collaboration between Austrade and Bridge Hub to provide Australian Agrifood tech founders with international connections, insights and opportunity to scale globally. It is an intense 10 day program hosted by the Tel Aviv Landing Pad and The Bridge Hub Israel for a selected number of Australian Agrifood Tech Startups.

About Bridge Hub

Bridge Hub is a global agrifood tech innovation hub that will identify, test and commercialise ideas and technologies of researchers and entrepreneurs. Bridge Hub is headquartered at Wagga Wagga in the heart of one of Australia’s main agricultural regions, the Riverina, it will also have operations in Sydney and Israel.

The Bridge Hub is a collaborative ecosystem that brings together the pillars of industry, research & government to create pathways to test and commercialise great ideas and research for the benefit of producers & consumers. As a commercialisation partner, it provides support through all stages of the commercialisation process in collaboration with its ecosystem partners.

About Blue River Group
www.blueriver.com.au

Blue River Group was established in 2015 as an Australian impact investment services firm. The sole purpose of Blue River is to undertake projects and deals that generate economic returns for investors but equally achieve positive and measurable social or environmental outcomes. It is a "profit with purpose" business.